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State should get what it can for extraction

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Friday December 13, 2013 5:00 AM

Ohio House Republican leaders are now proposing a tax on the oil and gas extracted from Ohio (Dispatch article, Dec. 5). Great. For some reason it’s less than what Gov. John Kasich
proposed earlier this year that they rejected. I’m sure their benefactors in the oil and gas
industry didn't want the governor's tax but settled for this new lower rate.

It is wrong to think these oil and gas companies would have abandoned the cash cow in Ohio had
Kasich’s tax bill passed, which would have generated $2.8 billion over 10 years. The new proposal
will generate $1.7 billion. That industry will make many billions for years to come. Ohio needs to
get its share for selling these depleting resources.

The article also says the state must pay to cap 5,000 abandoned wells. Why weren't the well
owners, who profited from these wells, made to cap the wells? Track them down and make them do it
themselves or pay the state to do it.